Euro 2012 – Groups Review and Predictions

Friday the 8th of June 2012 marks the start of the Euro 2012. The European Championship is second to the FIFA World Cup but it will offer

Euro 2012 (Photo credit: Surminga)

brilliant viewing for just under a month with many of the worlds greatest players currently. Many people are backing different people – people fancy Spain due to them being effective and victorious at the last World Cup in South Africa but others are opting for Germany, Italy, France and England. The tournament is a lot more open than a FIFA World Cup tournament, in all, 27 nations have appeared at least once in the final of the tournament. Of these, twelve have made it to the final match, and nine of them have won it at least once. With three titles, Germany is the most successful European Championship team. No team has ever won consecutive titles.

What do we make of each group and who do we think will progress from the group stages?

Group A

8 June 2012
Poland	Match 1	Greece
Russia	Match 2	Czech Republic
12 June 2012
Greece	Match 9	Czech Republic
Poland	Match 10	Russia
16 June 2012
Czech Republic	Match 17	Poland
Greece	Match 18	Russia

Group B

9 June 2012
Netherlands	Match 3	Denmark
Germany	Match 4	Portugal
13 June 2012
Denmark	Match 11	Portugal
Netherlands	Match 12	Germany
17 June 2012
Portugal	Match 19	Netherlands
Denmark	Match 20	Germany

Group C

Spain
Italy
Republic of Ireland
Croatia

10 June 2012
Spain	Match 5	Italy
Republic of Ireland	Match 6	Croatia
14 June 2012
Italy	Match 13	Croatia
Spain	Match 14	Republic of Ireland
18 June 2012
Croatia	Match 21	Spain
Italy	Match 22	Republic of Ireland

Group D

Ukraine
Sweden
France
England

11 June 2012
France	Match 7	England
Ukraine	Match 8	Sweden
15 June 2012
Ukraine	Match 15	France
Sweden	Match 16	England
19 June 2012
England	Match 23	Ukraine
Sweden	Match 24	France

Group A – Russia / Runners Up Greece

This is the group where we could see an underdog or not one of the usual backers winning. Greece have done it before in 2004 could they do it again?

Group B – Germany / Runners Up Netherlands

The ‘Group of Death’ offers a great group with 4 great teams, this group could offer any of the 4 winners but we think Germany are overall more rounded and more effective.

Group C - Spain / Runners Up Croatia

We have opted for Croatia runners up over Italy as we think Italy are not as effective all round as they use to be, no doubt we will be eating out words but Croatia have a chance of beating Italy and Republic of Ireland while Spain are hot favourites.

Group D – France / Runners Up England

France have been scoring a lot of goals and have a lot of great midfield and up-front players to out weigh their not so efficient defence, they will be on top with England getting the runners up spot.